As 2010 approaches it’s clear that cloud computing and telephony will be, or continue to be, the major trend affecting both enterprise CIOs and service provider executives. Research firm IDC has already predicted that next year will be a time of “recovery and transformation,” driven largely by cloud-based software and services. ABI Research Inc., meanwhile, foresees a massive shift to the cloud powered by the rapid spread of broadband connections and Web-enabled smartphones.
Many of these analysts have defined cloud services as those accessible via the Internet or IP technologies via a browser. That’s an overly limiting definition. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love the Internet; I’ve even used it myself once or twice. And, there’s no doubt that Internet access to cloud services such as apps, docs, mail, and CRM is a vital use-case. But there are more types of endpoints than browsers, and there is more to networking than the Internet. A variety of other network services are essential to unlocking the full value of cloud-based services for enterprises, and thus for their service providers. While the Internet (including the mobile Web) is obviously extremely important as a ubiquitous access mechanism, other network strategies may be preferable to tie enterprise infrastructure to cloud services and then make that hybrid infrastructure high-performing and secure. (Full disclosure: I work for a large global network and hosting/cloud services provider.)
- VPNs (Virtual Private Networks): The public Internet was not originally designed to carry sensitive customer, financial, or other private data. Consequently, providers of cloud infrastructure, platforms, and SaaS increasingly offer enhanced security via IPsec and other VPN tunneling technologies. This can range from SSL -- e.g., logging into your cloud-based Web mail via an “https://” page -- to more robust support with dedicated customer VPN gateways tying the enterprise data center to the cloud. One or more layers of encryption protect traffic between user devices and the cloud or enterprise data centers and the cloud.
- MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) VPNs: In the past, separate services had entirely separate distributed architectures. Voice used analog, and later digital, circuit-switched networks to connect single-mode endpoints (a.k.a. telephones) to voice-only cloud services such as switching, audio-conferencing, and call forwarding. This architecture is in the process of shifting to an all-IP architecture, with VoIP rapidly gaining share and Video-over-IP surpassing Video over ISDN in 2008. Cloud services, rather than requiring purpose-built equipment such as electronic switching systems, PBXs, routers, and video bridges, are rapidly becoming just multi-mode software applications running on (often real-time) hypervisors that, in turn, run on commodity large-scale computing platforms. However, voice, video, and highly interactive applications can have performance issues without end-to-end quality of service.
To read more cloud-related network strategies in the full, in-depth article on our sister publication, VON, click here or on the source link below.
Joe Weinman is Strategy and Business Development VP for AT&T Business Solutions.
